Craft Day!

During one of the few days that we had off of school--I start classes again tomorrow, yuck!--Andrew and I decided to get our creative juices flowing and create some homemade artwork. Or, Andrew was creative and I just followed along for the fun. Sounds more like it! Either way, I think our stuff turned out pretty spiffy :)

Hard at work...

Not so hard at work...

The finished product--to match our bathroom towels!

And some room decor! Yay for cheap painting.

Growing up is hard to do.

With the newly engaged Camille, and recently returned sis-mish, Emily

Today I did lunch with three of my best friends in the whole world! All of whom I met while at BYU. I guess the cold weather of Provo was worth it in some aspects. Anyway, it was a sort of bittersweet reunion as Emily (right, above) has just returned from a mission in Spain, Camille (middle, above) just got ENGAGED and is moving to Texas after her wedding in late July, and Lauren (below) is preparing to move to New York to attend Columbia University's nursing program. I've got some pretty spiffy friends if I might say so myself :) We were missing one of the four original roommates--Amanda, we missed you! She is married and in the process of moving from Washington to California. Anyway, it was great to see them all and chat, and weird to realize we are all grown up! Sigh...

Lauren & I--She will be missed! I hope she survives New York better than I did...

For good ol' times' sake--the first day the "Wiz Kids", as we called ourselves, moved into our new apartment together.

Pistol.

So, we watched all the Prusse kids last night--overnight--so Tim & Kristin could have a night off to celebrate Tim's birthday. They really are good kids and were great to watch. I was, however, given a small glimpse of motherhood as I was up with Ashlyn for most of the night! She wasn't even hungry or sad--in fact, she was blowing bubbles, laughing, and just AWAKE! She's a pistol, this one. At one point I just had to crack up. If she weren't so darn cute, I would be much more upset about the small amount of sleep I got to kick of finals week... Andrew, however, slept like a rock--another glimpse into my mothering future! But, we were more than happy to do it for our great bro-in-law and sister. Let's just hope our kids are as cute as Ashlyn, or I don't know how I'll handle things :)

And the award goes to...

So, Andrew entered the "1/2 Show" advertising competition on campus recently. He submitted a few ads--and won two awards! Second place in the non-traditional category, and overall Best Concept. Both awards were for his Havaianas ad pictured above. It had an ad placed on an airline tray table to look like your feet extend to wear Havaianas sandals.

I was SUPER proud to be his wifey and am so glad we have some creative juices in our family, thanks to him!

He also entered a Diet Coke at featuring one of my wedding pictures! It's pictured above.

Here's an IKEA ad he did--the one with the couch.

And here's the Havaianas ad closer up.

I also got inducted to the International Honor Society of Nursing--Sigma Theta Tau--last month. Andrew attended the awards ceremony with me, and I got some cool purple cords to wear at graduation!

My dedicated nursing friends and I--we've endured a lot together!

California Pics

Haven and her little friend, Jane, already learning tanning basics

The girls at Katie's birthday dinner!

The two adorable little munchkins--I married into a cute family!

Had to put this one...what a little peach.

At the Spectrum with Katie and the youngsters, about to ride the Ferris Wheel.

Such a fun trip--we miss the fam and California already!

Beautiful Burn.

We went to California this weekend to visit the fam for birthdays and General Conference. It was SO fun and nice to get away from the cold in Utah and to some warmer weather. The little kids are all so cute and were fun to be with. Also, it was Beth and Katie's birthdays over the weekend so we celebrated those. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Only down side--we got fried in the sun. I wore sunscreen, and I swear it wasn't THAT hot. But, none the less, we are "well done" and popping Advil. But, it was so worth it! Pictures to follow.

It's a Gem.

Delicious. And somewhat healthier than most "snack mixes" out there--whole grains and baked and all. Andrew was a big fan of these types of snacks and has converted me. Not helping with my lose-the-winter-weight-and-look-hot-for-summer plan though...

Adorable.

So, my so cute sis-in-law, Summer, and her husband, Bryan came down to Utah for the weekend. Summer is David Archuleta's stylist and came down to help with his concert in Salt Lake. Andrew and I planned to meet Summer and Bryan for lunch on Saturday up in Salt Lake--Summer had said that we probably couldn't meet David, and we were okay with that since we didn't want to be annoying.

Well, on the way up, Summer called and said we could come by the place where she was helping David get ready for the concert and his upcoming international tour since she was still there! We were excited, to say the least. Let's just say I cried after he didn't win AI last season. We both think the kid's a stud. Well, after meeting him, he totally proved us right! He's the kindest, funniest, and most talented kid--and still so humble after all his success. So GO DAVID! Ha.

Done.

I'm DONE with school. Not really--but mentally, physically--I'm exhausted! I bombed a test yesterday, and don't even care! I'm losing my cool. Thank goodness only a few weeks left. Pray for me, please.

On a side note--yay for the sunshine! We have a short bout of cold right now, but I am hopeful that the warmth will return.

Obsessed.

My dad got season 1 on DVD for Christmas. We borrowed it--and got sucked in. Now on the second disc of season 2...all I have to say is, should have waited til the semester was over! So good though.

What you DON'T expect to see on a Saturday morning...

So, last Saturday we woke up to a very strange noise--it sounded like air whooshing, like if you were blowing up a big air mattress. We sat in bed perplexed until Andrew took a peek out the window to find a GIANT hot air balloon floating just feet above the houses on our street. Not exactly what we would have guessed!

The balloon proceeded to move down our street until it was about 3 feet above our roof! (see the pic above). Apparently the balloon was having issues because of wind and had gone adrift from their planned path. It landed on the street right beside our house and a huge crowd of people rushed forward to talk to the people (most of our neighborhood had emerged from their houses to watch the ruckus). After about ten minutes, they took off again! Talk about random. But it was hilarious and started of our Saturday quite nicely :)

I love stretchy pants.

Okay, so I got some black spandex pants from H&M a while ago for like $6--such a steal. I got them for the purpose of working out in. Well, since I haven't worked out, and have thus not gotten the toned bod I hoped for--I've been wearing the spandex pants all the time for other reasons! :) Actually, they're so comfy and can look cute with lots of stuff. So, just wanted to blog that I love my spandex pants!



Okay here's an example--not that I look quite that good in them! But you get the idea.

It's Pretty Much All Hype

A couple weeks ago Pat's B.B.Q. in Salt Lake City was featured on Guy Fieri's Food Network show, so of course you think if it got Guy's approval then it has to be good, right?

Well last Saturday, Elyse and I along with her sister, husband and their little kids; and Elyse's brother and his wife went up to see what this place was all about. The line to be seated was substantial, so this was another good sign. Once we were seated I noticed the place was more like a bar (low lit with neon Budweiser and NASCAR signs, not to mention we were surrounded by WT folk). Did I say this was a bad thing? No, we love people watching.

However, once our server took our orders, a period of AN HOUR passed without us receiving our food--let alone even being acknowledged at all by our server for something like drink refills. Sorry we didn't order alcohol buddy...and to top it off, at the half-way point of waiting, a 60 year-old version of Kid Rock got on the stage at front and began jamming tunes from Grateful Dead and Neil Young. It was about four times louder than necessary and halted any conversation that might have ensued amongst our party.

When we FINALLY got our food and it was just okay. I mean, I've had better ribs at Friday's. The only real winner was the corn bread (but it was a winner--I even got an order to-go on the way out). In the end, we went to pay and found out a FIVE DOLLAR cover charge had been added to our bill for the so called "concert" that we so much enjoyed. No tip from us--we're not usually cheap like that, but this was just unacceptable.

And, to top it all off, as we were leaving we noticed another party complaining to the owner of the restaurant. Apparently, they had been seated and waited an hour for their food as well, just to have their waiter come out and tell them that the restaurant had run out of food! And it was only 7:30. And I thought WE got screwed--these people were outright enraged.

So, needless to say, we won't be visiting Pat again any time soon.

We Like Him.

As I said before, we watch American Idol this season. Don't know why--but that's besides the point! Just wanted to say two things we're grateful for:

1. Tatiana is GONE. Bleh.
2. Danny Gokey is still here! He's got an incredible voice--much better than we were expecting--and seems like a really nice guy. Woo hoo!

Loved it.

I've been sick all week and weekend, and have wanted to do basically nothing. So, I convinced Andrew to come with me to see Confessions of a Shopaholic yesterday for a President's Day activity. I loved it! He liked it quite a bit. It's a feel good film. And, I saw some of myself in her character :)